Charlotte is ELEVEN months old!

Monday, January 06, 2014

Charlotte, you are ELEVEN months old!

You, my big girl, are about twenty pounds {my estimate}, wear size three diapers, 12 month clothes, and are full of spitfire!

The big news this month is that you officially started walking {so all of my pictures of you are now a blur}! At Thanksgiving, you were taking two or three steps. Then, right before Christmas, you could take about eight steps, but you were still primarily a crawler. Once we got to Savannah though, there was no stopping you! I think our house is so small, there’s just nothing more than eight steps away… But at Gigi’s, the space was unlimited. As was the motivation of all of your upwardly mobile cousins. Within a week, you were walking clear across the room, at least ten feet or more. Between that, and playing with all of the big kid toys at Aunt Becky’s {play kitchens, grocery carts, strollers}, I feel like you turned into a full-blown toddler overnight.

{Multi-tasking}

This month has really been so fun with you. I won’t lie—you were giving me a run for my money for awhile, but now that things have slowed down on my end and Daddy was home for Christmas, we were both able to just enjoy you. I have time to just sit on the floor with you and play; have fun with your mobility, instead of being overwhelmed by it.

You’re also kind of, a little bit, maybe starting to understand your boundaries and aren’t trying to push them all the time. You don’t always like it, but you are becoming more obedient when I say not to touch something. Kind of.

On the other side of things, you are definitely developing an opinion. You are resisting anything that restrains you right now {i.e. car seat, high chair, stroller…} and get mad when you’re not allowed to do or have something you want. It is super fun.

You are developing your play skills, starting to hold a phone to your ear, hug your baby doll, and hold a bottle to her mouth. It is so sweet to see you mimic things and learn how to play. Other than that, your favorite activity is take things out of things. Make-up out of bags. Magazines out of baskets. Credit-cards out of wallets. I could leave you with a trash bag and go to the beach for the day.

Words… You have added “baby” to your repertoire. A slow deliberate “Bay. Bee.” has turned into “bee-bee!” EVERYTHING is “bee-bee.” Dogs, people, air… “Bee-bee!” You are trying to say dog too, but it just comes out, “Guh!”

Your fervor for eating has tapered off a bit. You are taking smaller bottles and your appetite is inconsistent. Sometimes you eat enough for two of you, other times you are done after five bites. I am trying to find the balance of listening to your opinion and not letting you becoming a picky eater. One thing is for sure—when you throw your food, lunch is over! Mommy don’t play.

You’ve been a little sick lately…coughing and runny nose, also bad diaper rash. Cuddly isn’t the right word, but a bit more attached, you’ve become. Wanting to sit in my lap to play and not wanting me to leave the room. I’ll take it, baby girl.

I’ll just have to wrap this up now… Your brothers and sisters are going to hate you one day when they see how much internet space I dedicated to you.

We are just loving your life, little girl. We can hardly believe it’s almost been a year—easily the longest, quickest, most fun year we’ve ever had! Thanks for keeping things interesting around here.